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POLITICO 44

Pointing to recent insurance premium hikes, President Barack Obama called on lawmakers in Congress to push for health reform now and to hash out their differences at the bipartisan meeting he’s called for next week.

"The bottom line is that the status quo is good for the insurance industry and bad for America," Obama said in his weekly radio and internet address. "Over the past year, as families and small business owners have struggled to pay soaring health care costs, and as millions of Americans lost their coverage, the five largest insurers made record profits of over $12 billion."

The White House has seized on a major California insurance company’s plans to increase premiums for individual customers by as much as 39 percent to press their case on the need for reform to reduce skyrocketing health care costs.

The White House has invited 37 lawmakers from both parties to a Feb. 25 meeting on health care reform with Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and other administration officials. The meeting will be televised live.

Both sides have responded by digging in. Republicans have called for a brand new start on health care legislation, while Democrats have refused to back away from the bills passed by the House and Senate. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid signaled Friday that the public option could be back on the table.

The White House will offer its first proposal Monday, in an attempt to frame the agenda for the summit. Its version will reportedly take elements from the bills passed by the House and the Senate, and hold out the possibility of using reconciliation, a process that would let the bill reach his desk with a simple vote in both chambers.

Obama said that he has accepted Republican ideas "from the beginning," including letting people purchase health insurance across state lines.

"I don’t want to see this meeting turn into political theater, with each side simply reciting talking points and trying to score political points," he Obama said. "Instead, I ask members of both parties to seek common ground in an effort to solve a problem that’s been with us for generations."

He called on Congress to "move forward together," and reform health care.

"Next week is our chance to finally reform our health insurance system so it works for families and small businesses," he said. "It’s our chance to finally give Americans the peace of mind of knowing that they’ll be able to have affordable coverage when they need it most."

The republicans who attend this summit better read Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals" and be prepared!!! Better yet, Call for Obama's resignation on national television. Then Biden's... Then Pelosi's... Then... how far back do we have to go to find a sane legislator? Oooops... oxymoron.

Obama and his various Congressional lap dogs will never give up on jamming their health overhaul into law. All his talk about bipartisanship is just that, talk. Reality is that it's a cover story....more Obama trickery.

This president and his bashing of insurance companies is absolute baloney, more proof he is a left winged socialist nutjob. First of all 60% of the insurance companies in this country are nonprofit (meaning they make NO profit) and for those that are for profit there is not a single one even making one quarter the amount of profit Obama states they are making. All anybody has to do is look at the 10K and 10Q filed with the SEC for the for profit insurers to completely refute the utter nonsense he is spewing. Only 22% of the country is covered as full risk insured, 28% are covered by ASO ERISA Trust plans (self funded plans mainly by corporations) which have nothing to do with insurance and 40% of the population is covered by the government plans Medicaid, Medicare and SCHIP. Medicare and Medicaid comprise roughly 33% of the population yet consume almost 50% of total healthcare expenditures making it the most wasteful medical system in the country. PERIOD! The AMA conducts a study each year comparing private insurers to Medicare. For at least the last 5 years it has shown that Medicare denies twice the percentage of claims than does the private insurers in the aggregate. The second leading reason for a denial for Medicare is for “claim deemed not medically necessary”, which squarely refutes Obama's a position that health care rationing and is a clear indicator of how government healthcare will be administered. Don't believe it go to the AMA website and look at the study! Milliman Inc in a comprehensive study has shown that the administrative expense for Medicare is 5.7% of the total cost. That translates to $25.65 billion a year in administrative charges or $583 for every Medicare member per year. On the other hand the nation’s largest insurer United Healthcare had an SG&A of $13.1 billion in 2008, an amount $12.55 billion LESS than Medicare even though they provide healthcare for 26 million MORE members than does Medicare (they administer both corporate and full risk insurance). The per member administrative expense for United Healthcare is $187 per year or about one third that of Medicare yet again showing that Obama is not truthful about healthcare cost. It also show the tremendous amount of waste in government run healthcare verses the economy of scales created in a competitive market. Maybe Obama should first worry about getting the $500 billion in saving before creating this insurance nightmare? Just a thought! Here are the 6 largest health insurers in this country which collectively cover roughly 90 % of the population whose coverage is in the private sector and their net profits for 2009:

Seems as though they haven't quite got to the $400 billion earnings mark that Obama keeps spewing and is nowhere near 30% profit claim. So....if the insurance companies are not making the obscene profits Obama states (again look at the 10k's files with the SEC) and government healthcare admin cost are almost 3 time higher than private industry how is Obamacare a good bill and how will it save us money?

Lastly, if our healthcare is so poor, why do heads of state just come HERE to have medical procedures performed...rather than Canada, France and England? Seems to me if US healthcare was as bad as some of these interesting studies indicate people wouldn't be flocking to the US for medical care! Amazingly Bill Clinton came back to the US to have his heart procedure performed...not Canada, not France, not England...not Europe. What does he know that apparently Obama and the democrats doesn't? Overall Obama's knowledge base of how insurance companies operate is very underwhelming. In fact he doesn't haven’t a clue. ....LMAO. (if you don't believe the facts look them up yourself, don't believe what politicians tell you both sides of the isle are proven liars just look at the national debt, there 12 trillion reasons).

Obama said that he has accepted Republican ideas "from the beginning,"

?? BIG LIE...A REAL WHOPPER......TELL US ANOTHER ONE ??

Well, I have done it! I have read the entire text of proposed House Bill 3200: The Affordable Health Care Choices Act of 2009.

I studied it with particular emphasis from my area of expertise, constitutional law. I was frankly concerned that parts of the proposed law that were being discussed might be unconstitutional. What I found was far worse than what I had heard or expected.

To begin with, much of what has been said about the law and its implications is in fact true, despite what the Democrats and the media are saying. The law does provide for rationing of health care, particularly where senior citizens and other classes of citizens are involved, free health care for illegal immigrants, free abortion services, and probably forced participation in abortions by members of the medical profession.

The Bill will also eventually force private insurance companies out of business and put everyone into a government run system. All decisions about personal health care will ultimately be made by federal bureaucrats and most of them will not be health care professionals.

Hospital admissions, payments to physicians, and allocations of necessary medical devices will be strictly controlled.\

However, as scary as all of that is, it just scratches the surface. In fact, I have concluded that this legislation really has no intention of providing affordable health care choices. Instead it is a convenient cover for the most massive transfer of power to the Executive Branch of government that has ever occurred, or even been contemplated. If this law or a similar one is adopted, major portions of the Constitution of the United States will effectively have been destroyed.

The first thing to go will be the masterfully crafted balance of power between the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches of the U.S. Government. The Congress will be transferring to the Obama Administration authority in a number of different areas over the lives of the American people and the businesses they own. The irony is that the Congress doesn't have any authority to legislate in most of those areas to begin with. I defy anyone to read the text of the U.S. Constitution and find any authority granted to the members of Congress to regulate health care.

This legislation also provides for access by the appointees of the Obama administration of all of your personal healthcare information, your personal financial information, and the information of your employer, physician, and hospital. All of this is a direct violation of the specific provisions of the 4th Amendment to the Constitution protecting against unreasonable searches and seizures. You can also forget about the right to privacy. That will have been legislated into oblivion regardless of what the 3rd and 4th Amendments may provide.

If you decide not to have healthcare insurance or if you have private insurance that is not deemed "acceptable" to the "Health Choices Administrator" appointed by Obama there will be a tax imposed on you. It is called a "tax" instead of a fine because of the intent to avoid application of the due process clause of the 5th Amendment. However, that doesn't work because since there is nothing in the law that allows you to contest or appeal the imposition of the tax, it is definitely depriving someone of property without the "due process of law.

So, there are three of those pesky amendments that the far left hate so much out of the original ten in the Bill of Rights that are effectively nullified by this law. It doesn't stop there though. The 9th Amendment that provides: "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people;" The 10th Amendment states: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are preserved to the States respectively, or to the people." Under the provisions of this piece of Congressional handiwork neither the people nor the states are going to have any rights or powers at all in many areas that once were theirs to control.

I could write many more pages about this legislation, but I think you get the idea. This is not about health care; it is about seizing power and limiting rights. Article 6 of the Constitution requires the members of both houses of Congress to "be bound by oath or affirmation" to support the Constitution. If I was a member of Congress I would not be able to vote for this legislation or anything like it without feeling I was violating that sacred oath or affirmation. If I voted for it anyway I would hope the American people would hold me accountable.

And another to the Bill of Rights: http://www.archives.gov/exhibi... l> There you can see exactly what we are about to have taken from us. Michael Connelly Retired attorney, Constitutional Law Instructor Carrollton , Texas Defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic.

From "Week in Politics" on NPR. Talking about how SIMPLE bipartisanship could be if only politicians on both sides weren't vote grubbing.

BROOKS: Nonetheless, I think if E.J. and I sat down, we could put together a bunch of things that we could probably fit together - maybe the excise tax, maybe take some Republican ideas like malpractice reform, being - allowing people to shop across state lines and then throwing some of the Democratic insurance reforms. I bet reasonable people could actually come up with something...

SIEGEL: (Unintelligible).

Mr. BROOKS: ...if they didn't have to run for office.

SIEGEL: If they didn't have to run for office. So elections rob us of our reason is what you're saying.

The posts so far indicate what is wrong with the messaging from the right and left. The average american/pundit has NO idea what is being proposed. Health care costs are and will skyrocket. PERIOD. The question is how much and how quick. What proportion of our GDP SHOULD be spent on healthcare? America is not nearly as efficient as she needs to be in this area going forward.

Looks like Obozo will do anything to try and keep his former good image. Someone should tell him it's too late!! Time for him to join his wife touting her plan to help fat little Negroid (1 of 3 actual races) kids!!!

The posts so far indicate what is wrong with the messaging from the right and left. The average American/pundit has NO idea what is being proposed. Health care costs are and will skyrocket. PERIOD. The question is how much and how quick. What proportion of our GDP SHOULD be spent on health care? America is not nearly as efficient as she needs to be in this area going forward.

Those are the benefits reaped from negotiating from behind locked and closed doors in secret. Nobody knows from nuttin'! There is no Republican input because the Republicans were locked out. It's as simple as that. That dog won't hunt Obie, you should know it by now. By continuing to beat the tattered HC drum you are wasting valuable time and millions of Americans are becoming insoluble and couldn't afford any form of HC and will simply become beholding to the federal and state governments for their inferior form of government controlled HC further driving up the deficits and brings us closer to bankruptcy and taking away any desire for people to work out their own solutions causing them to become zombified drones of the democrat party's mob structure. There is a very chill wind blowing over any mal-conceived HC symposium and photo Op..

maybe costs are going up becuase our population is getting older??? maybe???? or maybe becuase of tort actions taken against insurnace companies??? maybe???? How about the cost of malpratice insurance which is the highest cost a doctor faces...maybe tort reform is in order? or is it just that rich people bilking poor people??? ( personally my favorite lie)! How do you propose lowering cost, spending another tillion in governement run healthcare? will that do the trick? will rationing care work? will deniing coverage work? how about illigal guests of the state? I think not! vGovernement run anything doesnt work...theres a long track record of its failures.

So if govt run healhtcare goes through plan on having coverage when you dont need it (when you are young) and plan on no coverage when you need it (when you are old). Laws of economics will prevail...either you are going to pay for what you get (that whole idea of personal responsibility) or someone will decide for you if your worth saving (govt rune healthcare). There are no guarntees in life except death and taxes......it is up to the indiviual to provide for themselves. Our constitution only provides for the RIGHT of life liberty and the prusuit of happiness you have to go out and earn it! besides I dont want to pay for your heath insurance, I have problems paying for my own!

Obama said that he has accepted Republican ideas "from the beginning," including letting people purchase health insurance across state lines.

Yet another Obama lie to file away and bring up for the 2012 campaign.....Along with his lie about saving the economy from depression, creating 2 million jobs, his broken promises on keeping unemployment down below 8%, not increasing middle class taxes, being transparant in his negotiations on health care reform, his promise not to have lobbyists in his administration, or to have health care work be televised on C-SPAN....

His promise to change Washington....to have our country be less partisan and for the parties to come together and work....All dashed on the rocks of hatred and vitriol the Democrats have constructed....

The Democrats DID NOT take any of the GOP's ideas and totally incorporate them into the bills....The bills are GARBAGE and they should be scraped and everyone start over....

That is what must be done and Obama is unwilling to do it....even after polls show that's what a majority of Americans want.

The threat of using reconciliation hangs over all of this and until that is removed, no trust will occur and the GOP is right to say, "You're on your own, dems....try ramming it through and see what happens."

Obama is a bad leader, a dishonest man and a very incompetant executive....Look at the state of our federal government and see what he has done! FAILURE.

Political philosophy is irrelevant; party affiliation is irrelevant. The "poll" that accompanies the topic of reconciliation on Politico is clear...as is all polling on the matter. The administration is advised of the "intelligence" daily. With minor variances, approximately two-thirds of the American people oppose this Bill in its present form. In the event President Obama chooses to become a martyr to the cause and moderate and conservative dems want to all hold hands and jump off a cliff with him, so be it.

It's becoming clear that the health care summit is merely a six-hour dog and pony show as suspected. Is there a bottom to the well of disappointment? Are there progressives who don’t support “the end justifies the means” rationale? It is most unfortunate that Mr. Obama, who could have accomplished great things, is enslaved by an ideology that will fail just as it has in the past. Although not probable, perhaps there is a time and place for the progressives. It's not here and it's not now.

TORT reform is a good option but will only account for a shockingly small amount of savings. Republicans were not LOCKED out of anything. First, they lost power in the house and senate on their own accord and second they are reaping too much political advantage by crossing their arms and stamping their foot and saying no no no. I don't mean to say that there isn't equal blame on both sides but to cast the republicans as HEROES and Dems as the evil-doers shows you are using the part of your brain best for cheering on college football teams and not governing a country.

Although not probable, perhaps there is a time and place for the progressives.

Never in this country my friend. Progressive ideology will never work. Look at California. Destroyed by liberal/progressive ideology.

Look at Europe. The EU is falling apart because the progressive agenda does not take into mind the need for money to accomplish their goal. When you penalize people and business by confiscating income, and hand it out to those defined as needy, the well eventually runs dry.

Another note about what americans want....each side is so quick to say that americans want what they want. We have been pretty evenly divided all along with a current slight edge to the naysayers that I attribute to misinformation/confusion and Obama derangement syndrome. According to Gallup numbers for Jan 2010 37% want congress to vote for the bill and 41% want congress to vote against. Hardly a landslide. In October of 2009 is was 40% that wanted congress to vote for the bill and 36% that wanted congress to vote against. Given the variability I think a 50/50 split is fair.